Know your Man: Fuchsia?

Men recognize a few colors, primary mostly. Berry, Lemon, and Peach are fruits. Peony is a flower. Don’t even ask them if they want the walls painted in salmon. Salmon is a fish! What on earth is fuchsia?

In the movie “The Dish” the mayor’s wife asked his opinion about what dress to wear during the American Ambassador’s visit to their town. She presented two dresses, one yellow, which she called “lemon” and the other a primary color; blue, I think it was. Every time he mentioned the yellow dress, she would insist he called the dress lemon. He was so concerned about this color name that he ended up introducing his wife to the American Ambassador as: “And here is the Lemon!”

In my Spanish classes we invariably get to the topic about clothes and colors. I usually call some people to the front of the class or we do a fashion show, so we can describe their clothing. While women debate colors such as “is this blouse periwinkle or cornflower,” men immediately say: “it is blue!” Invariably, they find it very funny in a freaky kind of way, that the women get so caught up in the details of the colors and not the basic color per se.

Word of Advice:

Ladies: Keep it simple. Understand men are usually primary color type of people.

Gents: When she comes with vocab that you don’t know, pay attention to the inflection in her voice. If she sounds excited about some piece of wardrobe, just nod and say: It is great. She will never know you are clueless.

Now, if she asks you to pick it up for her—honey, could you get my “French pink” sweater, the one by the “dusty rose” blouse?—just pretend you need to use the restroom or something else and get out of her sight as fast as you can. If, however, the issue is more serious, such as color paint for the walls, by all means, ask to see a color chart before making any decision, for which, most likely, you will never have a say, anyway.